[EzExZeRo7497]

June 9th, 2014
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Muse by Piana
Finally got this album. Piana is an ambient/dream pop artist hailing from the land of the rising sun. I've listened to Piana before and I really like her work. Ephemeral is a wonderful combination of warmth and ethereality, especially with his child-like dreamy voice. It is innocent, but also motherly. It is nothing short of lovely, but it is ultimately not very memorable. It's probably because albums like these aren't my cup of tea, but it is still a great album. Snow Bird is also a good album, but not as good as Ephemeral. Muse is her first album after 7 years of inactivity.

The album starts off with I Think..., a sombre little track with the Piana sound fans all know and love. It's bright and mellow, but with a tinge of sadness. It's a wonderful sound, though her vocals seem a little too disruptive at points. It feels like her work is all grown up now, no longer a little child. I think a change is warranted though, it's been a very long time.

Imaginary Window shows the drastic change in style. Her music is no longer just pure and bright - it feels a lot more sombre now. The beat and everything is wonderful, creating this beautiful garden at the distance. It feels as if Piana is walking through this lush garden filled with life, singing to the plants. The garden is welcoming her back, it's been a long time. The flowers are dancing along to her ethereal voice, it just feels wonderful. This makes me feel relaxed, it's so beautiful. Piana's voice hasn't lost its beauty. In fact, it's more beautiful than it ever was.

In Silence... oh man. I've heard this track before getting this album, and I thought it was absolutely fantastic. The melancholic instrumentation, her dreamy voice... these elements really create something pristine. The progression in this is just wonderful, starting off with something quite small. At the halfway point, the small area just flourishes to a bright garden filled with snow and crystals. Hard to describe how I feel about it - just the section halfway through just tugs on my heartstrings. Her voice buries so much melancholy, but at the same time she feels so happy. Really really odd, but at the same time exquisite.

While Piana always has some glitch/electronic elements in her albums, it's more prominent here. This is her most electronic-driven work - filled with glitches and kickdrums. Seven to ten years ago, there will not be tracks like Ruins or Borderless.

Ruins is accompanied with heavy distorted instrumentation, almost post-rock-esque. It's a very odd combination, but it works wonderfully. I think a similar song would be Kashiwa Daisuke's Something Is Lost, albeit this is less dreamy. It does however, feel far more visceral. It picks up what the previous track Nostalgia, left off. After reminiscing on her past memories, she realises that she has to move on. The sound feels very confident, almost triumphant. It just hits me really hard, because I've never heard dream pop this powerful before. Sure, it's accompanied by the instrumentation, but her voice exemplifies the atmosphere. It's really really nice-sounding, too.

I think I have to admit, I'm a sucker for ethereal atmospheres. Piana makes these atmospheres very often - very good ones as well. Most of the album is like that, though it takes more than pretty atmospheres to appeal to me. It further impresses me by its astounding variation. Nostalgia is very depressing, Imaginary Window is heartwarming, Phosphorescence is unbridled joy, and so on. I really really like the variation here, it keeps the album extremely fresh. The best part is that most of these tracks are consistently good too. The weakest track here might be Prosphorescence, but it's still not bad. There's also some one-off tracks as well. Borderless is very trancey/glitchy and Piana's vocals are probably as catchy as it could get in this album.

Is there anything I could complain about? Hmm... perhaps it's how aimless it is at points. While the first 6 tracks follow this thematic, I can't quite follow the last three tracks. Surely enough, two of the last three tracks are the weakest out of the nine tracks. They're still not bad though, in fact I still liked them considerably. The rest of the album is very strong, some of the best Piana has made. Actually, it might be some of the best dream pop-ambient hybrids I've heard. The only one that might top this would be Ferri's A Broken Carousel, but they're uncomparable.

After seven long years, Naoko Sasaki released what I think is her most refined and mature work yet. It is definitely different from any other album she has done, but the change is almost always positive. It stuns me that Piana's beautiful and fragile voice fits wonderfully since the album is so varied. This is a soundtrack that lifts you up from bed to gives you the sleep you've wanted by the end of the day. I'm nothing short of impressed, and I think I'll be listening to this a lot more frequently. It is most definitely not perfect, but there really isn't much room for improvement now. Simply phenomenal.

Album Highlights: Nostalgia, In Silence, Ruins
Track Average Rating: 4.11/5
Overall Rating: 8/10
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Bersarin Quartett by Bersarin Quartett (recommended by _.Spitfire._)
Bersarin Quartett's debut album is an ambient album filled with modern classical and chamber music elements.

Oktober starts off with sweeping sounds of violins to set off quite the mood. It's quite bleak and melodramatic, almost too melodramatic. The trip-hop-esque beat startles me a bit, it just feels off. The beat is quite playful, but it is juxtaposed by the violin sweeps I mentioned earlier. It's a really odd combination, it doesn't quite click with me. It's too odd of a combination for me to feel comfortable in.

It's hard for me to really talk about any of these tracks. I don't really see much, nor do I feel anything too strongly in this album. Geschichten Von Interesse reminds me of some tracks from Black Earth - particularly the jazzy ones. It's a gothic classy sound, which is quite nice. It doesn't quite make me think of anything else, though.

Inversion is an odd one for me. The energy level is like something building up and just popping back to its original level. The buildup is nice, but nothing too special. The buildup is very spectral, especially at its climax. Almost haunting, I'd say. It doesn't last too long though, it's back to the original bleak atmosphere after.

The album overall for me, is a bit hard to get into. The sound is a little bit too subtle, nothing that really stands out for me. There are some highs and lows, but they're a little bit too unclear for me to distinguish. This does detract from my enjoyment of the album unfortunately. The album as a whole just doesn't do anything to me. It's a nice sound, but that's all it provides. It's an album that I would much rather put in the background than to examine intricately.

At some points however, I feel that the ambience is disrupted. Tiny blips here and there startle me too much for me to relax in, like the blips 3.5-4 and 8 minutes into Und Die Wett Steht Still. In addition I think some tracks would be better if they were more spacious, removing the trip-hop element in Oktober for example. Tracks like October have ideas that contrast way too much to really take in for me.

I've honestly felt the same response when I first listened to Black Earth. It's a bit too secondary for me, doesn't do too much. While the last track was a very nice change of pace, the rest just seems quite immobile. It's a bit too mundane for me, the abrupt blips don't quite help my cause. I can't say that I disliked the album - because most of the atmospheres are quite nice. It's just that there isn't much going on for me to really embrace anything.

Album Highlights: Geschichten von Interesse, Inversion, Mehr als alles andere
Track Average Rating: 2.95/5
Overall Rating: 6/10